She smiled a little at the way he fumbled with the tenses, largely because it was something she was still catching herself doing, as well.

"Did, yeah. Up until a few years ago, I was with the Behavioral Sciences division of the F.B.I. To make a very long story short, I left for political reasons: there were some corrupt people pulling strings, and it would have hurt too many colleagues' careers if I'd stayed and fought it out."

That was a half-truth, of course: sure, she'd marginally protected Crawford and Mapp, but Mapp was tough and could handle herself, and Crawford had been on the brink of retirement. She was quite certain that I ran away with a fugitive from the top of the Most Wanted List because he made a lot more sense and was a lot kinder to me than most people I'd professionally dealt with was not the sort of thing you told people when you were first getting to know them, if you wanted to keep them around.